Tottenham's Wilson Palacios will be a key part of Honduras's bid for World Cup qualification. Photograph: Tony Marshall/EMPICS Sport/PA Photos

With El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago seemingly out of the running, the only question that remains is which three of Costa Rica, United States, Honduras and Mexico will go directly to South Africa, leaving one to play the fifth-placed finishers in South America in a play-off. The US's impressive showing at the Confederations Cup, where they were runners-up to Brazil, marks them out as the most likely candidates to make an impact at the World Cup should they get there, but it is not unreasonable to expect Honduras to repeat the heroics of their only previous appearance in the finals when, in 1982, they performed gallantly and were desperately unlucky to finish bottom of their group. After reaching the semi-finals of this year's Gold Cup (where they lost 2-0 to the US), a squad made up mainly of players from the Honduras league but augmented by foreign-based stars such as Wilson Palacios of Tottenham, David Suazo of Internazionale and the Wigan duo Maynor Figueroa and Hendry Thomas, have improved steadily under the guidance of the former Colombia manager Reinaldo Rueda. Mexico, perhaps the biggest underachievers in world football given the size of their population and passion for the game, remain unconvincing. There are many who believe their bad start to qualifying was not down to the ineptitude of the then manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, but more profound structural problems with football in Mexico. Eriksson's replacement, Javier Aguirre, began with a 2-1 loss to El Salvador but followed up with a victory over Trinidad.